Technology | The Guardian

CyberSquirrel1 aims to show that it’s not hackers we should be afraid of – it’s squirrelsAcross the world blackouts are happening and power grids are being shut down. From Europe to America, and across Asia and Africa, we’re losing the cyberwar. But the enemy is not who you might think: it is squirrels.While we’re busy worrying about hackers and rogue states, squirrels scamper into electricity substations and chew through power cables. They’re the kamikaze troops in nature’s war against national infrastructure. Continue reading...

In the face of chaos on the streets of the Indonesian capital, citizens respond with solidarity, declaring: ‘We are not afraid’

The place to talk about games an other thing that matterIt’s Thursday! Continue reading...

There are currently more phone-holding monopods on the market than you can shake a stick at. But not all are created equally, so we put them to the testSelfie sticks are either the epitome of what is wrong with society or the best thing since camera phones, depending on your point of view. But as you start to use them, you realise that they aren’t all created equally, even if many of them are produced in the same factory in China.

Theresa May gives first hint costs may far exceed £240m estimate as it emerges even small-scale providers could be targetedCoffee shops running Wi-Fi networks may have to store internet data under new snooping laws, Theresa May has said.Small-scale networks such as those in cafes, libraries and universities could find themselves targeted under the legislation and forced to hand over customers’ confidential personal data tracking their web use. Continue reading...

US libraries are doing something even the most security-conscious private firm would never dream of: deleting sensitive information in order to protect users

Muhammad Khan’s name appeared on a US government list of people subject to economic sanctions, which saw him barred from signing up for Paragon

Autonomous ambulance that took its first untethered flight in Israel is capable of landing in spaces that helicopters can’t, and will be able to airlift two peopleA drone ambulance designed to airlift two people has taken autonomously to the air for the first time.

White House tech summit reportedly saw Apple’s CEO call for a ‘no backdoors’ policy when it comes to communications encryptionApple chief executive Tim Cook has challenged the US government to adopt a policy of “no backdoors” in its approach to the encryption technology used by his company and other technology firms.Cook made his comments at a recent meeting between US administration officials and technology companies including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Twitter, Dropbox and Cloudflare as well as Apple. Continue reading...

Dozens of listings on occupied Palestinian land on the accommodation bookings site raise questions about its legal position in profiting from the rentalsAirbnb is listing dozens of properties located in Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land as being inside the state of Israel, raising questions about the technology platform’s legal position in profiting from rentals on the land.The global accommodation bookings website boasts listings in over 190 countries, including Israel and the “Palestinian Territories”, as the West Bank and Gaza are described on the company’s website. But while a search for Airbnb properties in the Palestinian Territories turns up rentals in the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus, properties in settlements such as Efrat, Ma’ale Rehavam and Tekoa are listed as being in Israel. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Wednesday! Continue reading...

Parliamentary committee to question home secretary on all aspects of her draft investigatory powers billMPs and peers are to challenge the home secretary, Theresa May, on the privacy implications and detailed operation of her snooper’s charter legislation when she appears before the bill’s parliamentary scrutiny committee.May’s appearance on Wednesday follows a strong warning from major US internet companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter, that unilateral British demands to access their customer’s confidential data and weaken their encryption could undermine trust in their services. Continue reading...

Privacy concerns dismissed by European court of human rights after Romanian engineer fired for using Yahoo Messenger to communicate with fianceeEmployees in Europe might want to think carefully about using the internet to send private messages during office hours after Europe’s top rights court ruled on Tuesday that companies could monitor workers’ online communications.

Perpetrator, who claims to be a teenage boy, has also broken into the personal accounts of John Brennan, the director of the CIA, according to reportsPersonal online accounts linked to James Clapper, director of national intelligence, have been hacked, only months after reports that someone was hacking the personal email of John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Dylon sponsored article titled ‘14 Laundry Fails’ did not make clear content was piece of marketing, advertising watchdog rulesBuzzFeed has broken the UK advertising rules for failing to make it clear that an article on “14 laundry fails” that promoted Dylon was an online advertorial paid for by the dye brand.It is the first time BuzzFeed, which has built an international business out of so-called native advertising that creates paid-for articles for brands, has fallen foul of the UK advertising watchdog. Continue reading...

California regulators require self-driving car firms to report when humans had to take over from robot drivers for safety, though Google is giving only select dataGoogle’s self-driving cars might not yet have caused a single accident on public roads, but it’s not for want of trying.

First influx of outside capital values dating app for gay and bisexual men at $155m and will pay for new features and servicesGrindr, the dating and social networking app for gay and bisexual men, has hooked up with a Chinese partner for its first ever outside investment.The gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech paid $98.4m (£68.4m) for a 60% controlling stake in Grindr, valuing the California-based business at $155m. It is expected to use the app’s popularity as a way of boosting income from outside China by directing users towards its games. Continue reading...

Latest software update, iOS 9.3, allows users to auto-switch between smartwatches, meaning you never have to be without a working one again

Trapped in their self-referential Twitter bubble, journalists often fail to realise that social media doesn’t represent the whole worldOver the past few years, Twitter’s status as a platform for public debate is a dog-whistle platitude that has become the gilded shield of First-Amendment-waving journalists everywhere, like our very own #NotAllMen hashtag, to justify the mishandling – and, in some cases, even endangerment – of our sources for digital stories (and, yes, tweets should be considered sources).Theoretically, anyone can stumble upon your unprotected tweet; therefore, we can embed your tweet in our news story without informing you or asking your permission. But just because journalists can exercise that power, does that mean we ought to? Continue reading...

Information commissioner warns encryption ‘is vital’ for personal security, and attempts to weaken it should not be in new investigatory powers billThe information commissioner’s office has heavily criticised the draft Investigatory Powers bill for attacking individuals’ privacy, particularly in relation to the apparent requirement on communication providers to weaken or break their data encryption at the government’s request.The privacy watchdog also told the parliamentary committee responsible for scrutinising the bill that “little justification” was given for one of the most controversial aspects of the proposed legislation: a new requirement on communications providers to store comms data for 12 months. Continue reading...

As many as 30% of retailers are reportedly using facial recognition to track shoppers, but some are exploring less invasive tech – including shoe profilingThere are eyes on you, behind the bright lights and mirrored panels. Pick up a boot and a camera will make sure you don’t slip it into your bag. Cross the threshold into a department store and there is a tacit understanding that you will be watched, but new technology is leading retailers to grow a different set of peepers – eyes less focused on shoplifting and more interested in your age, sex, size, head, shoulders, knees and toes. Knees and toes.A few months ago, IT firm Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) put out a report that claimed around 30% of retailers use facial recognition technology to track customers in-store. What is facial recognition? It is technology that can identify people by analysing and comparing facial features from a database. You may be familiar with it from Facebook’s photo tagging, but similar techniques are now making their way into the physical world with devices such as Intel’s RealSense cameras, which are able to analyse everything from particular expressions to the clothing brands someone is wearing. Continue reading...

21 tips, tricks and shortcuts to help you take control of Netflix, Roku, iPlayer and other streaming services and devices. Continue reading...

Electronics company says agreements simply need to be put into practice, but a victims’ advocacy group counters that key issues are unresolvedSamsung Electronics announced on Tuesday that it had signed “a final settlement” for workers who contracted cancer in its semiconductor plants, but a victims’ advocacy group said key issues remained unresolved.The deal, signed by the South Korean electronics company and two groups representing the victims and their families, aims to improve health and safety conditions at all Samsung’s plants. Continue reading...

Non-profit’s new boss says replacing government funding is a priority which will ensure its survival and restore credibilityAt a secret location on New Year’s Eve 2015, a core team of Tor Project employees mingled with the Berlin cypherpunk underground. One person was missing: their new executive director, Shari Steele, who had been introduced publicly a few days earlier to much fanfare at the world’s oldest gathering of hackers: the annual Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg.Steele says it’s accurate to describe her as avoiding the spotlight. “That is the way I work, and how I will continue to work at Tor,” Steele told the Guardian. Former co-workers confirmed: she likes to work behind the scenes, and is extremely effective doing so. Continue reading...

It’s easy to be distracted by drones and 3D printing, but the real news from Las Vegas is how rich and immersive video is the new canvas for advertisingThis is the most exciting time to work in advertising. Technology is making amazing things possible, but that means we must focus on what matters. Here are the trends to ignore and the three simple things marketers should take from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).It’s appropriate that CES is held in the cathedral to excess that is Las Vegas. The show is a celebration of abundance; a sensory overload of ever-bigger TVs, cavernous exhibition stands, endless lines, pointless products, pumping audio and drones wafting around your eyes. It’s a celebration of distractions, especially if you work in marketing. Continue reading...

In the heart of the most tech-obsessed corner of the planet, Steve Hilton hasn’t had a phone in years. He’s relaxed, carefree, happier. His wife on the other hand ...Before you read on, I want to make one thing clear: I’m not trying to convert you. I’m not trying to lecture you or judge you. Honestly, I’m not. It may come over like that here and there, but believe me, that’s not my intent. In this piece, I’m just trying to ... explain.People who knew me in a previous life as a policy adviser to the British prime minister are mildly surprised that I’m now the co-founder and CEO of a tech startup . And those who know that I’ve barely read a book since school are surprised that I have now actually written one. Continue reading...

A growing range of video games take us into an imagined rural past that poets, painters and playwrights have explored for centuriesStory of Seasons is a video game in which you spend hundreds of hours very slowly growing an agricultural empire while attempting to convince a villager to marry you by giving them an egg every day. It is a game about hard work and settling down. The only thing you can fight in Story of Seasons is the natural rhythm of rural life – and it is a fight you will lose.

It’s the new social network from Vine’s co-founder where you can post a gif with just one letter, and it’s currently iOS-only. But is it just another Ello?Over Ello? Periscoped-out? Sick of Snapchat? Good news, then: there’s yet another social network on the scene, trying to eat up your life.Peach is a new, lighthearted app seeking to slide in to the space in our digital lives somewhere between Twitter and Facebook. Continue reading...

Model S software update allows owners to ‘summon’ car, which can drive off and park itself, but also curbs AutoPilot features for safetyTesla’s chief executive and serial technology entrepreneur, Elon Musk, has said his company’s cars will be able to be summoned and drive autonomously across the US to pick up their owners within the next two years.

Video for Ili, a wearable translation device, features British man attempting to seduce women on streets of TokyoIt could be just what every tourist needs – an unobtrusive gadget that offers instant, accurate translations in three languages.

Until now, the idea of flying your own jetpack has been largely fantasy. But 2016 could be the year when it takes off commerciallyWho hasn’t wished at one time or another for a jetpack? Ever since James Bond used one in Thunderball in 1965, they have been a talisman of the hi-tech future. In every decade since, jetpacks have threatened to lift off. The world watched during the opening ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, when a pilot used a jetpack to zip from one side of the stadium to the other.But limited flight durations and the sheer danger has stalled progress. Now times are changing – and not just because Iron Man is the latest cinematic character to wear one. Several companies are racing to bring a practical jetpack to the market. “The technology is improving all the time, engines are getting smaller and becoming more powerful,” says Yves Rossy, aka Jet Man, who has spent 20 years developing a personal jetpack. Continue reading...

Naomi Alderman imagines a future where we have created full artificial intelligence for video games. It may not be as entertaining as you thinkOh, users: they say the darnedest things. I co-created the smartphone fitness game Zombies, Run! with Six to Start and most of our users are fantastic: perceptive, encouraging, creative, tireless cheerleaders for what we do. And then there are … well. People who don’t quite understand how technology works.Related: Zombies, Run! goes freemium after 1m sales to attract hordes of new players Continue reading...

Sound designer John Broomhall describes his work, which embraces everything from field recording to complex mathsWhat is your role in audio?

Can upstarts flip the order of things, or do they become the new status quo? Like most buzzwords, it is little more than chest-thumpingAn experienced, well-educated friend of mine has been looking for a job for close to six months, and I’ve been helping her with feedback on her CV. Throughout her early 20s she worked for a succession of tech startups and app development incubators that came out of the gate roaring, only to dribble out – and cut staff – in a matter of months, leaving her in the frustrating experience of less than a year’s experience with a single firm. Each new position becomes harder for her to land than the last one.We’re brainstorming her applications, and the plan is to call her “agile”. She can work in upstart environments, she’s eager to learn and can adapt to change. She wants to be part of something that’s growing even if there’s risk involved, she says, trying to find a positive narrative for herself in her employers’ successive failures.

Confirmed last week as the tech giant’s highest-paid executive, the ex Burberry chief is charged with making the Apple ‘experience’ even sleeker. It might also mean larger profitsIn Danny Boyle’s gripping Steve Jobs film, the talkie action is set before a series of product launches. The issue that’s repeatedly revisited by the Jobs character is the prime importance of technical development. In a tech company such as Apple, that’s hardly a surprising position, but there’s a sense in which that emphasis now seems a tiny bit old hat.Jobs was also a stickler for design and in recent years a great deal of attention has been focused on Jonathan Ive, the British designer responsible for the style of the MacBook , iPad and iPhone, among other products. What sets Apple apart from its competitors, runs the consensus opinion, is the elegance and simplicity of the way its products look. But perhaps in Apple’s natural history, the design phase too has been replaced by a new stage of corporate evolution: the marketing stage. Continue reading...

Campaign aims to restore its Free Basics plan for ‘unconnected billion’The green light on Pushpa Kaushik’s modem hasn’t come on for the past three months. When she first got internet access in her home a year ago, all the people of Lalpur, a small village in Uttar Pradesh, northern India, used to come to her house to use her computer. Some needed to check their bank accounts, others wanted to learn English, and some even wanted to look for solutions to their medical problems.Village girls studying at the local university used to come to her house to look for reading material online. Now that Kaushik’s green light has gone dark, they have to walk an hour to the nearest town just to pick up a book. Continue reading...

A wireless charging feature that gives phones with less than 20% power a slight boost when hurled against a wall – perfect for those with anger issues!This week, rumors that Apple, in its neverending quest for a sleeker phone, is ditching the standard 3.5mm headphone jack in the upcoming iPhone 7 have sent some users into a frenzy. Lost in the white noise of the headphones buzz, however, are a number of other equally brilliant rumored revisions and improvements to the iPhone. Continue reading...

While Chinese factories pump out copies, Shane Chen – who patented the original hoverboard – is sanguine. It’s ‘just a toy’, he saysShortly before Christmas, with sales of hoverboards surging as the must-have gadget of 2015, Shane Chen flew to China to confront his tormentors.Chen is the man who developed and patented the hoverboard design in his lab on the US west coast four years ago. With its two wheels, the “hoverboard” doesn’t quite match up to the promise of its namesake in Back to the Future – but that has not put a dent in its popularity. Continue reading...

Every Friday, we apply critical attention to things that don’t normally get it. This is an important function that might just hold civilisation together. Or not. We’ll review your suggestions, if you drop them in the comments or tweet @guideguardian Continue reading...

With some of the most popular games heading for Hollywood debuts, three big virtual reality headsets due out and games and TV merging with some huge stars on board for the ride, it’s shaping up to be an exciting yearIt’s been a tough few years for Nintendo. Despite making some wonderful games, its Wii U has struggled to win over fans and the company has reported some of its worst financial results in decades. This year, it will fight back with a new console – the NX. Very little is known about the machine other than it is intended to bridge the worlds of portable gaming and the console that sits under the TV. Nintendo has confirmed that it will be unveiled this year and manufacturers say it could be on shelves by Christmas. Continue reading...

‘How do you celebrate Apple Keynote Day?’ and other revealing questions Continue reading...

Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft and YouTube will attend the meeting with intelligence agencies to discuss terrorists on social media and encryption

The whistleblower made a virtual appearance at Las Vegas tech convention through Suitable’s Beam, a screen-on-wheels robot with subversive potentialThere are lots of people pitching fancy gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show this week here. Add to that list: Edward Snowden.The former National Security Agency contractor, famous for handing over western government secrets to the Guardian and other publications, made a virtual appearance at the Suitable Technologies booth here. This was possible because Snowden was speaking from Suitable’s Beam, a sort of roaming screen on wheels used for remote commuting and virtual meetings. Continue reading...

Yellow Cab said an unusual number of accident claims this year had an impact on business, not to mention competition from ride-hail services like Uber and LyftThe largest taxi company in San Francisco is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest sign of turmoil in a global industry beset by competition from app-based ride-hail services.

As Oculus Rift pre-orders begin, debate remains about how mainstream VR will be, whether it’s about more than games, and what it’ll do to humansIs 2016 the year that virtual reality (VR) finally makes its breakthrough as a mainstream technology? That’s a question for its evangelists and sceptics to argue about, and there are plenty in both camps.With Facebook’s Oculus Rift headset now available to pre-order, Sony’s PlayStation VR and HTC’s Vive on their way, and millions of cheap Google Cardboard headsets out in the wild already, this year will see a barrage of experimentation around VR. Continue reading...

Yasmine has a six-year-old Vista laptop that does all she needs. But time is running out, and she finds Internet Explorer 9 limitingI’m (still) on Vista Home Premium SP2. My Acer Aspire 6930G is nearly six years old but it does everything I need, except I can’t upgrade beyond IE9 and that is increasingly limiting. I could change to another browser but I find Firefox quite flaky and would rather avoid Google products if possible – and I understand that Chrome support for Vista is going soon anyway.Can I still upgrade to Windows 7 (and then, later, onwards and upwards) and, if so, how? YasmineWindows Vista shipped in November 2006 – nine years ago – and Microsoft will stop supporting Vista SP2 in April 2017. I don’t expect the wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompanied the end of Windows XP in 2014, because of Vista’s tiny market share (it’s roughly the same as Linux). None the less, Vista users should be planning to migrate to something else. Continue reading...

The Ehang 184 single-passenger drone is unveiled at CES in Las Vegas. Company co-founder Yifang Xiong says it takes off vertically and is controlled by a GSP app designed for non-pilots. Lithium batteries provide a flying time of 23 minutes. Xiong admits it may be a scary concept, but envisages a future where passenger drones seem normal Continue reading...

Logitech, Microsoft, LG... which portable keyboard is just your type?The work-life boundary is increasingly blurred, these days. Emails ping in the pocket all weekend, and the entire world has become our workplace: the bus, the bath, the pub. The great literary minds of tomorrow are in their local Costas, hunched over sweaty phablets, and miraculously versatile though our mobile devices are, they’re miserable to type on for any length of time.Related: Can you do ‘real work’ on an iPad? Continue reading...

CES 2016 is packed with health companies offering solutions to desk-based laptop slouch. Our reporter stopped slouching for long enough to try some of themOur digital lifestyles and desk-based workplaces are contributing to serious health problems and could be shortening our lives, technology’s wellness firms want us to believe.“Americans will risk their lives for convenience,” Philo Northrup told the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday. Slouching over his chair and hanging his head down, he said: “When you say digital lifestyle, we’re talking about sitting, and over the day gravity is doing this to you.” Continue reading...